By way of background, a variety of food preparation apparatus are available in which a product, such as a food concentrate or food base, is combined or otherwise mixed with water or another liquid. In this regard, most beverages, as well as other liquid food substances, such as soups, are not ready to drink and are prepared by mixing water, either hot or cold, with such a product. For example, there are numerous devices which combine powdered or liquid concentrate coffee products with water to produce a reconstituted or mixed coffee beverage having a desired flavor. Similarly, some fountain-type beverage devices may be capable of dispensing carbonated beverages, as well as juice or other non-carbonated beverages, by mixing a syrup or powdered beverage product with carbonated or non-carbonated water to produce a diluted or reconstituted beverage.
One method of operation in the area of beverage preparation equipment and product sales is for the beverage equipment supplier or the product supplier to provide or loan the end user with the beverage preparation equipment at little or no cost by way of a no cost or low cost loan arrangement. In this scenario, the supplier retains ownership of the equipment. The supplier sells the product used with the loaned equipment at a higher price than the price solely for the product if the user owned the equipment. This allows the supplier to recover costs associated with the loaned equipment over a period of time through the higher priced product. In other words, this involves loaning the equipment to the end user with the agreement that the end user will purchase its product requirements from the supplier. The scenario typically requires that the equipment supplier maintain ownership and control of the equipment so that it can be transferred back to the equipment supplier in the event that the end other circumstances which require return of the equipment to the supplier.
One of the problems for the equipment supplier is that another company's product or concentrate could be purchased by the end user for use in the equipment supplier's equipment. Such a situation occurs and often results in a considerable loss of revenue for the supplier. Moreover, such switching of the product or concentrate by the end user can occur without the knowledge of the equipment supplier.
The equipment provider may be an equipment manufacturer, as well as another party, such as the producer or supplier of the product concentrate. Examples of end users are restaurants, convenience stores, hotels, motels, stadiums and other entertainment facilities, health care facilities, and other large institutional settings. Moreover, it should be noted that many of these types of end users may be members of a franchise arrangement which makes it difficult, if not impossible, in many situations to precisely monitor the type of concentrate being used in the equipment. With this in mind, the equipment supplier is left to trust or explicitly contract with the end user to avoid the end user from switching to an alternative, perhaps cheaper cost and lower quality concentrate product. Moreover, if the situation is managed by contract, the equipment supplier must be prepared to enforce the contract in the event of a switch in concentrate by the end user, which could damage or terminate the relationship.
As an additional concern, the equipment supplier often wishes to maintain a particular quality associated with the beverage equipment. In this regard, a well recognized, high-end equipment manufacturer would prefer to have some ability to control, if not assure, the quality of the beverages produced by its equipment. This oftentimes directly relates to the quality of the product concentrate used in the equipment. As such, if a cheaper, less expensive, and lower quality product is used in the equipment, a poor resultant product could impact negatively on the image and reputation of the equipment manufacturer.
Because the equipment supplier maintains ownership of the equipment, and incoming revenue is dependent on the use of the equipment, it is important to the equipment supplier that the equipment remain operable at the site of the end user. For example, it is important to discover any malfunctions in the equipment as early as possible. This helps to facilitate quickly correcting problems to minimize the amount of downtime, and prevent the machine from possibly becoming permanently damaged. It is also desirable to preventatively maintain the equipment to minimize downtime to maintain and further develop the manufacturer's reputation for quality equipment.
Unfortunately, because the equipment is with the end user, the equipment supplier typically does not become aware of problems with the equipment until the end user informs the equipment supplier. As such, by the time the end user informs the supplier, the equipment supplier may have already lost some revenue as a result of some downtime. In the intervening time the equipment may have become permanently damaged. Because the equipment is owned by the equipment supplier, if the machine is permanently damaged, the equipment supplier must replace the machine in order to continue receiving revenue and/or fulfill its contractual obligations to the user.
With the foregoing in mind, an aspect of the present invention seeks to provide a system for monitoring the performance and/or components of a machine. The present invention also provides a system of billing based on the monitoring of the machine.